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This in from the Vatican Information Service today. John Allen tells me that he will be filing a report about this later this morning.

COMMUNIQUE CONCERNING AUDIENCE WITH CARDINAL SCHONBORN

VATICAN CITY, 28 JUN 2010 ( VIS ) - The Holy See Press Office released the following communique early this afternoon:

"(1) The Holy Father today received in audience Cardinal Christoph Schonborn O.P., archbishop of Vienna and president of the Austrian Episcopal Conference. The cardinal had asked to meet the Supreme Pontiff personally in order to report on the current situation of the Church in Austria. In particular, Cardinal Schonborn wished to clarify the exact meaning of his recent declarations concerning some aspects of current ecclesiastical discipline, and certain of his judgements regarding positions adopted by the Secretariat of State - and in particular by the then Secretary of State of Pope John Paul II - concerning the late Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer, archbishop of Vienna from 1986 to 1995.

"(2) Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals, and Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B. were subsequently invited to join the meeting.

I am a big fan of New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan and was surprised by his decision not to allow parishioners from St. Francis Xavier Church to attend the city’s Gay Pride parade with a banner that extols that church’s ministry to gays and lesbians. After all, the Church explicitly and repeatedly calls for ministry to gays and lesbians and, just a few days prior, Dolan had presided at the Mass of Rededication which included a mention of the parish’s ministry to gays and lesbians.

After meeting on Monday, members of the commission have said they will step down on Thursday, Belgian reports say.

Adriaenssens expressed concern at what could have motivated the authorities.

"They could only act in that way with the sentiment that we were in the wrong or that we were trying to conceal the cases. This while I made a point of working in complete transparency," he is quoted as saying in the Belgian press.

Two gigantic extremes dominate life in America to an increasing degree and journalists either slavishly serve one or the other -- or stand between them, ethically challenged.

One extreme is full bore exposure of triviality. The peccadilloes of the stars, both show biz and political, shouted and magnified by their publicist accomplices; hyped outrage at moms who let their kids have dessert before finishing their carrots; and the juicy details of exotic murders.

The voluntary side of that is the orgy of self-exposure. Accounts of troubled childhoods that spare no gruesome detail. "Biographies" that blame everyone else for everything. Revelations that pretend to shock while expecting sympathic reactions.

Secrecy, the other extreme, is even deadlier, operating in the shadows to manipulate persons and enormous resources to maintain its own privileges. Corporations thrive on it; so do universities and governments. It takes a Freedom of Information Act to pry the Federal doors open even enough to find a fraction of what should be readily available.

Back in April, retired Belgian priest and anti-pedophilia crusader Fr. Rik Devillè told reporters that he had informed church authorities more than fifteen years ago about sexual abuse allegations against Bishop Roger Vangheluwe of Bruges, but no action was taken. Vangheluwe resigned on April 23, admitting that he had repeatedly abused his teenage nephew in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

We did it. Over the past hour (it’s midnight on Friday night), we received more than $200 in online donations. Combine that with Webathon-designated pledges arriving by snail mail and we have gone beyond our $30,000 goal.Thank you to everyone, more than 700 individual donors, who have shown their support for the independent Catholic journalism – the news, analysis, and informed opinion you see at NCRonline each day – NCR provides. We are truly grateful, and truly privileged to serve our readership.

So often when adoption is in the news, it is not a positive story (the religious folks shadily trying to get orphans out of Haiti, for example). But on today's Huffington Post, there is an absolutely "happily ever after" story about a family who adopted a little boy from Malawi.

The adoptive mother is a former seminary classmate of mine and the former religion reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times (and author of several books). Cathleen Falsani and her husband, Maurice Possley (also a journalist), met 8-year-old Vasco while on an African trip they had won as a raffle prize. Orphaned by AIDS, Vasco was sickly and needed heart surgery.

"Well I do think that people are understanding that technology sometimes doesn’t work, that it breaks down and that it may not be able to save us from the mistakes that we make. There is a sense of that in the Gulf, that my gosh, one after another of these multi-million dollar systems that are supposed to operate under extreme conditions failed. And all of the rescue attempts failed. And I think that’s a very healthy lesson for us to learn at this moment when we’re being asked to support ever-more risky energy options; that these technologies that we’re told are infallible are fallible."

This week, Interfaith Voices features a full report on the interfaith delegation to Vietnam that investigated the horrific legacy of Agent Orange and Dioxin in the bodies of children, and in the earth itself.

We tell the story in a two-part "lead." The first features sound from Vietnam and the major findings of our trip. The second part is my interview with Bob Edgar, the leader of the delegation, currently President of Common Cause, and formerly a Member of Congress and General Secretary of the National Council of Churches.

Cleaning up after this war is a moral “no-brainer.” But politically… well, that’s something else again. If you are interested, go to the Plan of Action, developed by prominent citizens of the U.S. and Vietnam.